San Francisco reverses plan to rename schools honoring historical leaders

San Franciscoโ€™s school board late Tuesday night overturned its controversial plan to rename dozens of schools with names its members claimed honor โ€œracistโ€ historical leaders.

The cityโ€™s board of education voted unanimously to repeal its move to strip 44 schools of names of historic figures, including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The board intends to revisit the renaming in the fall when students return to full-time in-person learning.

During Tuesdayโ€™s meeting, parents and previous educators ripped the board for its original decision โ€” which sparked a huge backlash, along with legal challenges for the decision being made without community input.

โ€œThe repeal of this amendment to change the name of 44 schools gives me hope that you realize San Francisco voters are your boss,โ€ said Marcia, a former principal of a San Francisco elementary school.

โ€œWe elected you to lead our school district, not dismantle it. Leave the decision for a name change, or not, up to each school,โ€ the former principal said.

A parent in the district admitted the renaming of schools is an โ€œimportant issue,โ€ but blasted the school boardโ€™s initial process as an โ€œembarrassment.โ€

โ€œI was incredibly disappointed by how poorly it was handled,โ€ the woman said.

โ€œThe board did not really take any reasonable efforts to have community input into this. To let schools decide what they wanted to do.โ€

The cityโ€™s board of education voted unanimously to repeal its move to strip 44 schools of names of historic figures, including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Robert Louis Stevenson.
The cityโ€™s board of education voted unanimously to repeal its move to strip 44 schools of names of historic figures, including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Robert Louis Stevenson.
AP

Another parent added: โ€œWhen considering renaming schools, keep in mind that context matters. You canโ€™t completely cancel history.โ€

Mistakes in the renaming plan included wrongly accusing Paul Revere of seeking to colonize the Penobscot people, and confusing the name of Alamo Elementary School with the Texas battle rather than the Spanish word for โ€œpoplar tree.โ€

Since passing its original plan, the school board was ridiculed for shoddy research and often wildly inaccurate claims linking school names to racism, sexism or other injustices.

Rather than addressing the criticism, Tuesdayโ€™s resolution said it โ€œwishes to avoid the distraction and wasteful expenditure of public funds in frivolous litigation.โ€

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